What credit monitoring can and cannot do.

Credit monitoring can alert consumers to file changes, but it does not prevent every form of identity theft or reporting error.

Credit report monitoring or company tracking is the monitoring of one's credit history in order to detect any suspicious activity or changes. Companies offer such service on a subscription basis, typically granting regular access to one's credit history, alerts of critical changes to one's credit history, and additional services. Credit monitoring can help detect credit related fraud and identity theft.